It's become easier for me to reach the 444.925 repeater in Chaska lately. Maybe there have been some improvements over the past week. While I had trouble with people on the other repeaters being able to read me when I came through the .925, at least it was linked. Now, however, none of the traffic found on the rest of the linked network is being carried on the .925, and anything heard by the .925 is not linked over to the rest of the network.
The EchoLink node that previously was attached to the 443.000 Chaska repeater, KA0KMJ-R (node 150438), is still up. The .925 supposedly replaced the (SNP) 443.000 machine, but the link must have been taken down. I can only wonder what machine the node is attached to now.
Still, I was able to "ker-chunk" the .925 with my 5W mobile for a full S9 while driving around Plymouth yesterday. That's a lot better than I can get from the VHF 147.165+ machine in Chaska under the same conditions. It makes me think that the .925 might not be in Chaska any more.
The down-side is that the audio has declined in quality. There's a whistling sound in the background that distorts the CW ID. I'm sure that N0BVE (Don) will say that it's still a "work in progress", but I've asked him about what's going on with this new addition to the HandiHam network -- mostly because I like having a new UHF repeater to play with. There aren't as many of them in the western metro as you find elsewhere.
There's always something happening with the local infrastructure this time of year, either for good or bad.
EDIT: N0BVE (Don) reports that the 443.000 machine is down, but will return at some point. He also confirms that that 444.925 repeater is still in Chaska.
EDIT: Last night the net was carried on the .925, so it seems that the link is in operation at times.
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